Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:25 am

Edited on: October 18, 2011 2:43 pm

Officials at Houston and SMU have both been contacted by Big East commissioner John Marinatto and have been told the league wants to discuss with them further about joining the league, sources told CBSSports.com.

The Houston Chronicle reported Monday night that Houston had been extended an invitation. However, league sources said no official invitations have been extended to any teams. The Big East also released a statement Saturday that no invitations have been extended.

On Tuesday afternoon, Marinatto held a media teleconference, but would not identify specific schools but did admit he's had preliminary discussions with several schools.

Marinatto said he's confident the Big East will remain an automatic qualifying BCS conference when the new cycle begins in 2014 and didn't provide a timetable on adding teams to replace TCU, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

"Stay tuned," he said. "We're not rushing ourselves to meet anyone's deadline. The sooner, the better."

Marinatto reiterated that the Big East would not allow Pittsburgh or Syracuse to leave the league early and must honor the 27-month exit agreement. Pitt and Syracuse will remain in the Big East through June 30, 2014, meaning the Big East could have a 14-team football league in 2013 if necessary, Marinatto said.

A college football industry source indicated the fact the ACC has to wait until then is not a big deal to the league. "It just gives the ACC more time to get organized and get their schedules set," the source said.

On Monday night, the Big East’s presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to increase the league’s exit fee to $10 million, but the increased fee is contingent on either Navy or Air Force joining the league as football only members, sources told CBSSports.com.

Marinatto confirmed the increase in the exit fee, but would not identify the school that would trigger the increased exit fee.

The increased exit fees from $5 million to $10 million for the football schools were something Navy and Air Force wanted before committing to the Big East.

"I don't think anyone will be blindsided or feel bushwhacked when this process is complete," Marinatto said.

Navy, Air Force and Boise State are interested to joining the Big East because of the league's automatic qualifying BCS status, but wanted a bigger financial commitment from the remaining members (Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia).

Sources said Houston and SMU – along with UCF – are prepared to accept an invitation to join the Big East as all sports members once an official invitation is extended.

UCF met with Marinatto and other Big East representatives in Cincinnati on Friday. Boise State officials spoke via telephone with the Big East on Thursday.

Marinatto is in the process of scheduling a meeting with Houston and SMU officials in the coming days in New York, sources said.

The Big East wants to get to 12 football teams with the addition of Navy, Air Force and Boise State as football-only members and Houston, SMU and UCF as all-sports members.

However, the Big East still could lose a school if Missouri leaves for the SEC. The New York Times reported Monday night that Missouri’s departure from the Big 12 to the SEC is “inevitable and imminent.” If so, the Big 12 could target either Louisville or West Virginia or even add both teams. BYU also remains an expansion candidate for the Big 12.

Marinatto said the Big East would move quickly in expanding and "is not going to pause" and wait on "the Missouri situation."

Marinatto also said he has not been contacted by any other conferences interested in any Big East schools since TCU left for the Big 12. When the league gets to 12 schools, Marinatto said it's a possibility the Big East could hold its football championship game in New York, similar to the Big East basketball tournament.

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

If Big East can accept the fact that they will lose AQ status eventually, then the direction of expansion would be different. Boise State won't be in the picture. But if they keep going down this path, they will end up adding Hawaii after losing a couple of teams to Big12. So, I would rather have them expand within the northeast region. One reason B1G and SEC are successful is that they are more regionally packed together than the other conferences thereby more natural rivalries. So, if I was Big East I would add UMass (to rival Uconn which is still a young program), Temple (to rival Rutgers), UCF (obviously to rival USF already in big east), Navy (football), and Army (football). Yes, I'm assuming either Louisville or WVU is gone with Big12 staying at 10 (Cinnci would be the rival). And then I would have Nova and Georgetown to invest more on their football programmes. This would put Big East at 10 teams and eventually expand to 12 down the road. Yeah, the AQ could be lost but who knows how the BCS and AQship will change down the road.I guess networks are clamoring for 16 team super conferences but I don't really see it happen. After this round, only thing that would cause realignment is availability of Notre Dame and Texas/Oklahoma. TV market wise, all the conferences have expanded as much as they could (well, arguably). So only reason left to expand is to add to inventory and those programmes can accomplish that. There's no way these conferences take Baylor, USF, Iowa State of the world to just fill up spots. Why would they do that? So there will always be a home for ND's non-revenue sports for them to stay independent. And Texas has LHN baggage. So, IMHO, Oklahoma is the next potential domino in 6 years.

Since: Jul 9, 2010

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:49 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

John Hightower.......I agree with most of your article about TRUST ! However, your facts were wrong about Mark Warner, the Virginia Gov. telling the ACC he would sue them if Virginia Tech wasn't given an invitation. What Gov. Warner did was tell the University Virginia President Mr. John Castelle that he expected for him to support Virginia Tech being added to the ACC. Virginia Tech needed one more vote to be admitted to the ACC, and that needed vote came from the University of Virginia. Those are the true facts, and no where can you find where Gov. Warner said he would sue the ACC. And yes, Virginia Supporters are very loyal to Mark Warner, and he was elected to the U.S. Senate after Sen. John Warner(no relationship) retired. And yes, after 7 years in the ACC, I have a feeling most/if not all member schools are happy VT is in the league.

Since: Oct 12, 2011

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:46 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

...and as a WVU fan I can say that the Big 12 would not our first choice because of the additional traveling involved, but we realize that the Big East isn't going to last much longer and we need a conference that will be stable and we would like that conference to have good football and basketball. The Big 12 would offer all that so we would take it in a heartbeat.

jhoshamusing
Since: Oct 17, 2011

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:40 pm

This comment has been removed.

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Since: Oct 12, 2011

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:40 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

tbSooner, judging by the message board comments I've been reading most Big12 fans are very favorable to getting the Big 12 back to 12 with WVU and Louisville in the mix. I think whatever conference WVU goes to would ideally have a FL team since WVU recurits very heavily in FL. I brought up the idea of having South Florida or Central Florida also join the Big 12 on one of the message boards and no one seemed to object or think it was a bad idea. Of course, fans on message boards liking something is a lot different than ADs and conference commissioners liking it.

Since: Jun 13, 2011

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:37 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

WVU IS A VERY GOOD FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL SCHOOL AND ANY CONFERENCE WOULD BE LUCKY TO GET THEM AND IT COULD BE THE BIG-12 WHICH WOULD ELEVATE THE BIG-12 TO THE SECOND BEST CONFERENCE IN AMERICA. I WISH UK WOULD LEAVE THE SEC AND GO TO A POWER CONFERENCE EVEN THOUGH THE SEC IS IN THE GROUP OF 6 TOP CONFERENCES IN THE NCAA. THE SEC IS A FOOTBALL HEAVY CONFERENCE(THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY) BUT BASKETBALL IS SECOND BEST. THEREUSUALLY ONLY 2 OR 3 TEAMS THAT ARE VERY GOOD AND THATS KY AND FLORIDA. THIS YEAR THEY WILL BE A REALLY GOOD CONFERENCE WITH VANDY, FLORIDA, KY, ALABAMA, AND SOUTH CAROLINA BUT ITS FOR THIS COMING YEAR ONLY. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE KY GO TO THE BIG-12 OR THE ACC BUT I KNOW THATS AN IMPOSSIBLE WISH SO ILL JUST HAVE TO SETTLE FOR 1 YEAR WHERE THE SEC WILL BE A VERY GOOD LEAGUE.

Since: Apr 25, 2008

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:23 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

I know that I am in favor of adding West Virginia and Louisville to the Big XII but how do fans of those two schools feel?

Since: Sep 5, 2011

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:21 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

Responding to ncgreen.nc

The discussions held by the BE after the ACC's raid of 2003-2005 was that eventually the football playing schools should leave the BE and form their own all sports conference. However, they could not use the BE's name - not could they take the BE's BCS AQ status.

Notre Dame is always treated VERY special. Visit the BCS webpage and read their history. The BCS pays ND $1.5 M/year just for ...? And if ND does (finally) get to a BCS bowl, they get $4.5 M. The only other schools who get money are Air Force and Navy - they only get $100,000 each. Reason given is due to their service to the country as "service academies". But Army gets $0.

As for the BE commissioner trusting people. HA! I used to work in state government, around the politicians. As my old boss used to say "You trusted me? I don't have a problem - obviously YOU do." Meaning, I was a dumb a** for trusting anything that was said or written. For the amount of money that a conference can gain by stealing members, I wouldn't trust anyone - even if their comments were recorded and shown on tv. Back in 2003 when the ACC talked about raiding the BE for Syracuse, BC, and Miami - Virginia Governor Mark Warner said the state of VA would sue the ACC. After it was announced that Va Tech was moving instead of Syracuse, then Governor Warner said he had lied - he had told the ACC that the state of Virginia would sue if the ACC did not take Va Tech. Va residents then voted Warner into the US Congress.

The BE commissioner knew better than to trust any other conference commissions. And he knew not to trust the ADs of the schools within his own conference. Does anyone really think the AD at Pitt was not talking to the ACC about moving while he chaired the BE's committee that was negotiating - and turnging down - ESPN's offer for a new contract?

Since: Jul 9, 2010

Posted on: October 18, 2011 10:03 pm

Big East talks expansion; contacts UH, SMU

Guys, I think when this thing fleshes out with conference expansion every school worthy of BCS AQ will land on their feet fine. With that being said, my belief is we will end up with 5(Five)16 team BCS Conferences. Some of you will say they are too big, and my belief is tough on you, but that's the way it's going to be for the future with big-time money in college football. In the Big East: WVU, UConn, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincy, S. Fla. will land solfly somewhere between the ACC, SEC, B1G and BIG 12. I just think the 5 BCS Conferences of 16 teams will be the four I just mentioned and the PAC 12. This is one man's opinion only, However these 5 Conferences will have a total of 80 BCS schools.